Chris has put out an interesting post at The Reptilian Buy Button.

What’s a “Reptilian Buy Button”? Chris says:

If you hit them with a primal, instinctive emotion, they may connect with you deeper than just the initial click. They make fall in love with your brand, your image, or your culture and you might have just convince a new person to join your cult and buy every new product you launch.

I agree with Chris, and it’s been a theme I’ve been following for some time.

In the online world, I’ve felt that there’s sometimes too much emphasis on technology, or Web2.0 or Ajax or (insert your favourite up-and-coming website/technology/product/service).

Internet Marketing is a business.

And a business is driven by the need to match demand and supply.

Demand can be natural, as in food, safety, warmth, comfort, sex, belongingness, love.

Or it can be created. No one really needs a MP3 player (billions of people in China and India don’t have them).

Apart from your psychological well being, a plasma TV, a WiMax-enabled PDA, and a 500gb Tivo isn’t a pre-requisite for survival.

Top of the chain for non-functional items are holidays and jewellery.

Holidays provide a change of landscape and ‘expand our horizons’.

I haven’t ever felt a need to expand my horizons by shifting my physical location because:

• I have an active imagination
• I can travel anywhere I’d like through books and films
• I’m just too addicted to the Internet to travel for extended periods of time

Here I am equally a victim too. No one really needs the Internet (unless you’re reliant on the Internet to generate income).

At this point, you’re probably thinking ‘So what? What’s this leading to?’

Here’s the bottomline:

If you haven’t already noticed, there is a law of inverse proportion at work here.

The more non-useful the item is, the more it costs (especially when it comes to luxury items.)

Do you really need a $20,000 Vertu phone?

Or a high performance Italian-designed supercar?

Especially when their counterparts cost 100 times less and provide a comparable level of functional performance?

Here’s another insight: Your personal feelings will inevitably bleed into the message you’re putting across.

The most effective entrepreneurs promoting super luxury holidays as individuals who might go on those holidays themself.

Almost always, a luxury goods distributor started out as a customer themself.

It follows the adage, it takes one to know one.

If you are developing niche websites providing high end products/services, it helps if you are a consumer, and the bigger a consumer you are, the more successful you’re likely to be (the same theory applies to affiliate marketing too).

But, as a fallback, you can co-opt someone who fits your target profile to serve as an advisor, to give you feedback.

Although your site can contain the latest technology, you’d fall far short if you’re lacking in the emotional elements. Because ultimate people buy something because they like it, and ideally they love it. Or they are seduced by their money making greed glands.

My advice, ditch the latest technologies, aim for the emotional heart of your prospect, you’ll soon hear the cash registers ringing.

[Chris: you really went out of SEOland on this one…]